By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday opened the week weak as its key index plunged 134 points to settle below the 11,700 mark, mainly on selling pressure in the telecom, real estate, consumer goods and industrials stocks.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) institutions and non-Qatari individual investors turned bearish and there was increased net selling pressure from GCC retail investors as the 20-stock Qatar Index plummeted for the fourth consecutive day by 1.14% to 11,651.26 points on decline in overall trade volumes.

Six of the seven sectors witnessed profit booking in the market, which is down 5.16% year-to-date.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen melting the most in the market, where trading was largely skewed towards the banking, realty and telecom sectors, whose stocks together constituted about 74% of the overall trading volume.

Market capitalisation eroded 1.1% or about QR7bn to QR619.53bn with small, mid, large and micro cap equities melting 1.57%, 1.11%, 0.96% and 0.5% respectively.

The Total Return Index shed 1.14% to 18,110.21 points, All Share Index by 1.14% to 3,122.3 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.69% to 4,534.88 points.

Telecom stocks plunged 2.71%, real estate (2.48%), consumer goods (1.71%), industrials (1.21%), banks and financial services (0.75%) and transport (0.29%); whereas insurance gained 1.17%.

More than 83% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Industries Qatar, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding, Dlala, Islamic Holding Group, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding; even as Zad Holding, Gulf Warehousing and Qatar Insurance bucked the trend.

The GCC institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR2.93mn against net buyers of QR3.29mn last Thursday.

Non-Qatari individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR4.23mn compared with net buyers of QR6.2mn on July 30.

The GCC individual investors’ net profit booking strengthened to QR10.23mn against QR2mn the previous day.

However, local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR5.53mn compared with net sellers of QR6.96mn last Thursday.

Non-Qatari institutions were also net buyers to the extent of QR6.13mn against net sellers of QR0.95mn on July 30.

Domestic institutions’ net buying was seen increasing to QR5.75mn compared to QR0.45mn the previous day.

Total trade volume was down 4% to 4.24mn shares and value by 6% to QR182.98mn, while deals rose less than 1% to 3,603.

The insurance sector saw 33% plunge in trade volume to 0.06mn equities, 51% in value to QR4.14mn and 20% in transactions to 90.

The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 28% to 0.51mn stocks, value by 48% to QR25.89mn and deals by 28% to 740.

There was 24% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to QR0.65mn shares, 33% in value to QR12.62mn and 20% in transactions to 307.

The transport sector’s trade volume was down 6% to 0.15mn equities, while value soared 28% to QR7.59mn. Deals fell 1% to 154.

However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 0.39mn stocks and value almost tripled to QR27.45mn on more than doubled transactions to 721.

The real estate sector saw 6% increase in trade volume to 1.17mn shares, 22% in value to QR38.67mn and 10% in deals to 674.

Although the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume was flat at 1.31mn equities, there was a 3% fall in value to QR66.62mn and 10% in transactions to 917.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

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